Shi Yousan (1 December 1891 – 1 December 1940), courtesy name Hanzhang, was a Chinese general of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) who served as the 9th Governor of the Chahar and 3rd Governor of Anhui provinces in the Republic of China.
Shi joined, defected from, then subsequently betrayed the forces of Wu Peifu, Feng Yuxiang, Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Jingwei, Zhang Xueliang, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Due to his numerous betrayals and defections, most notably the triple betrayal of Feng Yuxiang in 1926, 1929, and 1930, he is known as the 'Defector General' (), 'Shi Sanfan' (), and the 'Slave of Six Surnames' ().
In 1940, while leading the 39th Army Group of the NRA, he planned to defect to the Japanese. Before he could do so, he was kidnapped and buried alive by his sworn brother and subordinate Gao Shuxun, who later gained command of Shi's unit.
Early life Shi was born in 1891 in Jiutai, Changchun, Jilin, to an impoverished local family. In his youth, Shi worked as an apprentice at the Bijia Grain Store in Changchun. There, Shi befriended Bi Guangyuan, a member from the wealthy Bi family, which enabled him to attend the government-run Dongguan Elementary. One of his elementary school teachers was a teenaged Shang Zhen. In 1908, he abandoned his studies to join the army, becoming a member of Wu Peifu's forces in the Third Division of the New Army, in the unit under Cao Kun's command, stationed in Changchun and later Langfang in Hebei.
Warlord Era
Service under Feng Yuxiang On 29 February 1912, while in Beijing, Shi abandoned Cao's troop when his fellow soldiers started the , motivated by unpaid salary and the controversial decision of Yuan Shikai to name Beijing the new capital in place of Nanjing. He answered a recruitment call by Feng Yuxiang, who described Shi as "having the head of a deer and the eyes of a rat, and [being] as skinny as firewood".
Feng rejected his request to become a soldier in his army, for which Feng nicknamed him 'eight inches' () due to his short stature (160 cm), though he was allowed to join as a stableman. Shi eventually earned Feng's favor for displaying a strategic mindset during tactical meetings with his officers and showing off his hand-to-hand combat abilities he learnt during his three-month stay at a martial arts school (from which he was expelled after attempting to convince another student to take an exam for him). Additionally, despite being a senior secondary dropout, Shi still possessed a significantly higher education than most of Feng's soldiers and officers, and thus gradually rose through his ranks. In combat, Shi also distinguished himself as an effective commander, such as in the battle for Puyang under control of Chen Shufan during the Zhili–Anhui War. After several engagements by the regiments had failed, Shi organized a "death squad" composed of 120 soldiers, personally gave each one three silver dollars and led the charge on the village, resulting in a complete takeover.
During his time in Feng's army, Shi became close to Gao Shuxun, who joined his company in 1916, and would regularly serve directly under Shi for the following decade and became sworn brothers. In 1924, Shi, along with Liu Guitang, led the North China National Protection Army, a largely independent unit known to engage in banditry in the rural area around Beijing. Shi became promoted to the commander of the 6th Division in September 1924.
In October 1924, following Feng's Beijing Coup, the Guominjun was established. Shi became one of the "thirteen guardians/protectors" (), considered the most important commanders of the Guominjun, and subsequently the commander of the 8th Mixed Brigade of the 1st Army. In 1926, he gained the rank of lieutenant general in the Beiyang Army.
First Defections In 1926 during the Anti-Fengtian War, Shi's troops were stationed at Nankou (now Changping, Beijing), under regular threat of the Zhili and Fengtian clique alliance. Yan Xishan attacked the rear of the Guominjun from Shanxi, so Shi, along with Han Fuju's forces, were sent to fight against Yan's army. Due to the inferiority of their strength, Shi and Han brokered a non-aggression pact with Yan through Shi's old mentor Shang Zhen without Feng's knowledge and staged a retreat in August of the same year. The main force of Feng subsequently abandoned their hold in Beijing, with several deserters running into the units of Shi and Han and being absorbed into their forces. Facing defeat, Feng left the country for the Soviet Union, after which, Shi and Han decided to surrender to Yan.
In September, Feng swore allegiance to Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang after the launch of the Northern Expedition in July. Seeing that Feng's military capabilities had been bolstered, Shi returned to Feng's forces, and was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the 5th division of the Guominjun Army in Shaanxi, reportedly after a heartfelt apology during which Shi knelt and cried in front of Feng. As punishment for Shi's desertion, Feng dismissed Shi's chief-of-staff Zhang Longhua and replaced him with his trusted officer Li Bingxuan instead to directly report any of Shi's action to Feng. Not long after, however, Shi had Li abducted and buried alive as a warning to Feng.
In June of the following year, the Guominjun was reorganized into the 2nd Army Group of the National Revolutionary Army, and Shi became the deputy commander-in-chief of the 1st Front Army and the commander of the 5th Army. During the second phase of the Northern Expedition, areas controlled by the National Revolutionary Army in Henan Province was attacked and captured by the forces of , a former Shaolin Monastery student-turned-soldier. Feng ordered Shi's troops to move south from Shandong to engage in battle with Fan's forces along with the forces of Song Zheyuan.
In April, Shi participated in the against Sun Chuanfang, and was the only NRA general to maintain hold of the territory afterwards. By the end of 1928, the Northern Expedition was declared over. With the demobilization, Shi was assigned to the command the 24th Division of the National Revolutionary Army and was stationed at Nanyang.
In May 1929, when Feng aligned himself with the New Guangxi clique during the Chiang-Gui War, Shi defected to Chiang after being bribed and promised to be named Provincial Chairman of Anhui, publicly denouncing Feng for committing "the ten major crimes". Throughout autumn, Shi's new base of operations was moved from initially Xuchang to Bozhou, and finally Dezhou. In December, however, Shi had a falling out with Chiang over the chairman position and Shi's refusal to send troops to fight Li Zongren and Chen Jitang in Guangdong, who were former allies to him, instead allying with Chiang's party rival Tang Shengzhi. The feud culminated in an incident on 2 December at Pukou railway station where Shi reportedly declared "Old Man Chiang is nothing, blast him!" ("") and subjected Nanjing to several hours of artillery barrage with a joint force of Tang, Li, and Chen, aiming at Chiang's office in the Presidential Palace. After Tang was purged, Shi reconnected with Yan Xishan and through him got back in touch with Feng Yuxiang, who put him in charge of the 4th Area Corps of the Anti-Chiang Alliance Army and stationed him in Xinxiang.
Shaolin Monastery Incident In mid-late March 1928, Shi's troops were tasked by Feng to drive out Fan from Dengfeng County. Fan had set up base in Shaolin Monastery, having been a lay-disciple under former head monk . Earlier, the temple's latest head monk aligned himself with the Northern Warlords to protect local interests and was killed on 6 March 1927 in an engagement against NRA commander Ren Yingqi while commanding the 1st Shaolin Temple Self-Defence Regiment. By the time Shi arrived at the monastery to find Fan, the monks had formed an armed fighting force and refused to let any harm be done to Fan as a former member of the temple. In the ensuing battle, over 200 monks were killed and the Dharma Hall was set on fire. Brigade commander Su Mingqi then ordered for more of the temple to be set alight as punishment for the monks' resistance, and over the course of 40 days, 90 percent of the buildings were destroyed, and many manuscripts of the temple library were incinerated. The monastery later held that the event resulted from Miao Xing violating the Vinaya through his self-defense initiative, and that this negative karma led to his death and the 1928 cataclysm.Gene Ching. Kungfumagazine.com , Bak Sil Lum vs. Shaolin Temple].
Nanjing Decade
Central Plains War During the Central Plains War, Shi continued to serve under Feng. Following a series of defeats in May 1930, including the , and , Shi's secretary Liu Yidan arrived in Wuhan bearing a letter for He Yingqin, in which he agreed to side with the KMT government along with Han Fuju and all the soldiers under their command, totalling a third of all of Feng's forces. Shi had been incentivised by He's promise of generous concessions to generals under Feng willing to defect. It was this substantial loss that greatly contributed to Feng announcing his "retirement" and following flight to Taiyuan with Yan Xishan. On 1 June, Shi received a reward of five million yuan and was named commander-in-chief of the 13th Route of the Anti-Rebel Army in an impromptu ceremony in Xuchang through Chiang's emissary . Despite this, Shi would still covertly assist the remainder of the anti-Chiang forces under Sun Dianying in the Battle of Eastern Henan, capturing Caozhuang Village with plans to kidnap Chiang from his command post at nearby , but the assigned troops failed to complete the 30-mile trek due to rain.
Conflict with Zhang Xueliang In early 1931, while in Shenyang, Shi initiated contact with fellow warlord Zhang Xueliang, who had similarly split off from Feng to work with the KMT, and offered to enter an alliance with him, to which Zhang agreed, giving Shi a monthly 600,000 yuan salary, with 200,000 yuan up front as a sign of goodwill. Shi then formed a military force headquartered in Xingtai, composed of tens of thousands of former soldiers under Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan and used them to occupy the Pinghan railway, having heard of Zhang's plans to do so. In May 1931, Shi began working with Wang Jingwei, who had also joined forces with Li Rongzen, Chen Jitang and Liu Guitang, promising Shi a position in the anti-Chiang government being established by the Western Hills Group led by Hu Hanmin in Guangzhou, also appointing commander-in-chief of the 5th Army Group and giving him 500,000 yuan. Shi's cooperation with Zhang nevertheless continued until 18 July, when Shi was informed that Zhang had died of illness in Beijing and assuming that Zhang's territories were free for the taking, Shi immediately rallied his troops north to take over. Once in Manchuria on 31 July, Shi's soldiers were intercepted in a pincer movement by the armies of Chiang Kai-shek and the very much alive Zhang Xueliang, leaving only around 4,000 men to return to Dezhou. Zhang would later muse about his involvement with Shi, "A dog will always eat shit, and a wolf will always eat people, it's really hard to change one's nature." ("") For the rest of summer 1931, Shi faced many more losses, including against a joint force of and Liu Zhi during the on 29 July and a crushing defeat against Han Fuju during the on 8 August, following which Shi "resigned" as a warlord. His military activities ceased for the several months as he reconciled with Han and found refuge from Chiang at his residence in Jinan.
Assassination of Zhang Zongchang